An internship that changed my life!

I am Sana Mushtaq Zargar from the School of Law, University of Kashmir and the lush green, peace loving valley of Jammu and Kashmir.

My internship at CRY was my first ever internship. I’ve made a lot of memories during the journey of my internship but one of my most memorable projects in my internship was when I had to visit the children from CRY project intervention areas who were being trained at the Border Security Forces (BSF) training center on various courses. At the training center, I was delighted to see such happy faces and couldn’t wait to have a word with them. We had to document 5 initiatives which included courses like cooking, plumbing, tailoring, computers and electricity department.

On the first day, we had an interaction with the computer learners. On the second day, we interacted with the students of cooking, tailoring and plumbing and the electricians were covered up on the third day. We asked them about their life, their family, and their future goals. To add fun to it, we asked them about their favorite stars, songs and movies. Surprisingly, I found a Shah Rukh Khan fan as crazy as I am!

After having a session with the children, I was flooded with emotions. I could think of a thousand things bouncing around in my head. All of them had one thing in common. They dreamt big and had a strong belief that their dreams had a possibility of coming true. They were not ready to settle on small dreams. They had already realized that they could achieve more.

There was a girl who told me that she had to leave school because her parents couldn’t afford her further education. What really inspired me was that this fact did not break her down; it had made her stronger to think that she could teach and share her knowledge in the future. The best part was that they all wanted to help others in the future. I could not believe that those children were so compassionate. There was another boy, Adil. He shared how his friends poked fun at him for taking up cooking as his area of interest as cooking is seen as ‘women’s work’ but I assured him that there was nothing wrong in being a chef. I provided him the example of Akshay Kumar who was a chef before making it big in Bollywood. I loved how they wanted to reap the benefits of what they were learning and how they were filled with exuberance.

On the last day, it satisfied me that they had been learning so well and how CRY was contributing to shape their future. I would never forget the 3 days which made me realize how important it is to work for the progress of the underprivileged children because they have the potential and ability to do wonders in life. All we need to do is nurture their abilities. I will never forget how these kids, who themselves were so called “Under-Privileged”, had actually realized the responsibility which even the most “Privileged” have failed to realize in a country like ours, which is the sense that having something is a blessing but casts a greater responsibility on you that you have to pass this to the people who don’t have it. This sense is most important for a developing nation like ours, because this is what will lead to the formation of a socially secure society and country.

Thank you CRY, for making me realize how we need to be practical about Child Rights and not only on the paper. Thank you Sweta Ma’am and Veronica Ma’am for making me realize the littlest of things that may not matter to many, but are important. Our every word, every action affects the children. Thank you for giving me a lifetime experience. I’ll carry it with me throughout my life.